People and Places
by jin0uga
Summary: Some short vignette's from team RWBY characters. Light angst. "When I wake up on some nights, crying over things that could've been, I think of the things that are and the things I can be."
1. Chapter 1

People like to say that I'm young, naïve.

That is true, a fact as undeniable as the sun that shines. I smile too wide when good things happen, and others tell me that doing so will get me hurt. But that's okay.

Because when I feel, I am alive.

How can one reject something and hope to accept something else? Love and hate are the two sides of the same coin. Just like life and death, something I learned when I kneel down at my mother's grave and put down a bouquet of red and white roses.

Beacon was something new and bright; I met new people and did many things. I experienced love and loss. On some nights, when I wake up crying and sad with flashes what has been and what could've been, I think about the things that _are_ as the taste of salty tears lingers on the tip of my tongue.

A new day is a new slate, for everyone, and for me.

Until the day a dark shadow calls for me, I will continue being just as I am.

A small and slightly withered rose.

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**AN**: Wanted to post a new one shot I was doing but turned out longer than expected. Then, I read dirgewithoutmusic's story on tumblr and on ao3 so go read it. Their style really inspired me, sort of showing me what I wanted my writing to become in the future. Thus, this fic was born. I will also be doing a chapter for team rwby characters though I'm not sure how that will turn out. Happy (sort of) new year everyone!


	2. Chapter 2

It's no secret, that my family makes dirty money.

Money is what makes a Schnee (or so my father thinks) and without it, we are nothing. But I refused to believe in such a thing. In something that could be stripped away as easily as it was given. The world is a cruel, unforgiving place, something I often forget when I spend too much time with my dorky team leader. The fear of everything I own being stripped away still stands, so I always keep myself on my toes. The white fang is the least of our problems; the company is still at the mercy of the common man, the choice between Schnee dust and another's is more important than one might think.

I always had a choice. But I chose none.

I came back with a scar instead.

Choosing a premeditated path is the same as dying, why bother going with the flow if you're going to be drowned?

Praise is difficult to earn but disappointment is easy to receive; such was the lesson I learned on the day I stumbled into the mansion with my bloody face and dress smudged with black. Stares from all sides, eyes filled with resentment, pity, and condescension. It didn't matter that I survived, because I was no longer perfect and _that _made me nothing.

But I digress.

As my sister walks through the company walls with clothes picked out for her, daintily sashaying to her office with arms full of paper work; I fight in my high heels, my white dress tight against my skin, rapier dancing through the air and puncturing black flesh or white masks of loathing.

Schnee may not be perfect.

But Weiss will be.


	3. Chapter 3

The world is unkind.

To Fauni, at least. We are labeled as degenerates, thieves, killers and worse. So why do people act surprised when some actually carry out those deeds? Was it not them who forced us into the shadows?

Sometimes I wonder if we were born as monsters. But then I remember, that we're not the only ones. Those bigoted devils that sit on their high chairs and think that Fauni are at their beck and call are _wrong_.

They forget; that even a cornered mouse can be dangerous.

The White Fang had been the only place to accept me for who I was. But as time passed, I began to see that I was wrong. After all, how could they accept others when they could not accept themselves? Resorting to violence makes us no different from the monsters that treated us less than human. Why do they not see the truth? That doing such things are making the labels tougher to scrape away? Adam had fallen prey to the darkness. He is no longer who he was before, the person whom I knew. The childish, bull headed Faunus who fought to protect the innocents now slayed the ones he vowed to protect.

I managed to climb out of that dirty, dark hole. But–

_It clings to my skin._

_Damp–_

_Dark–_

_Dirty– _

_Like a parasite, it slowly rots me from the inside out._

As I walk down the street with a bow on my head and a book in my hands; I can almost smell the decaying flesh of the dead, and hear the screams of the ones I have killed without mercy and hesitation.

Ironically, Beacon academy is the shining beacon in the sea of darkness that engulfs me.

And as the bright lights from clean, sparkling souls wash over me; I can't help but think that eventually…I'll be alright.

* * *

**AN**: Made it more cheerful at the end. The second chapter of Cocoa with a dash of red is really hard to write when you have a writer's block. Some good news (for me at least) is that I passed my major exams! Now i can stop worrying and write more trashy ships ohohoho.


	4. Chapter 4

When my mother disappeared, she took part of me with her.

I still remember that hollowness in my chest. My father had probably felt that way too, but he buried it under too-bright smiles and bear hugs that nearly broke my back. Without her, I was aimless. As I grew older, the emptiness was still there. Time had done nothing but infect it, and it had grown into a revolting, infested hole. Everything I did was never enough. Having fun didn't get rid of it. Fighting until my knuckles bled tampered the emptiness slightly; but it always came back in the end.

My heart mocked me. It whispered cruel things that teetered between the line of truth and lies. And I found that no matter how far I ran, how many friends I made, how many enemies I pummelled into the ground; the darkness never went away. It clung to the hollow confines of my heart and grew like something akin to a nest of cockroaches.

I hated it. I hated myself. I _despised_ the weakness that kept its grip on me. The weakness that kept me yearning for a mother's touch, a mother's caress and a mother's love. Hate was easy. You could find hate anywhere in the world. It was overflowing in abundance, forever looking for empty vessels to fill.

I don't know how long I survived with that half rotten heart of mine.

But I can clearly remember the moment, that singular _life changing_ moment, when my heart was suddenly filled with so many emotions, all of them scrabbling into the crevice and making it whole again.

I remember when I first met Ruby.

She was so young then. Rosy cheeks, bright smile and an innocence that captured me wholly. I ignored my dad's ramblings and watched how she stumbled over to me, her tiny hands clutching at the edge of my stained yellow shirt.

She beamed, and said:

"You're really pretty."

It was a purely innocent compliment, and she smiled at me with such warmth that it almost made me shudder. I had been at a loss for words. Me? Pretty? Who was this child looking at? Because I didn't feel remotely pretty, not with all the hatred and anger I held for the world swirling deep in my belly, like a snake readying itself to strike.

"I-I…"

What could I say? What should I have said? Ruby had caught on to my surprise but she didn't say anything else. All she did was grin up at me, showing me her two missing front teeth.

Hesitantly, I reached out. My large, calloused hands engulfing her smaller, soft ones. Her touch was warm and kind while mine were clumsy and rough. And to my surprise, she didn't shrink away from me, or shrug her hand out of mine.

All she did was squeeze.

The action woke something within me. Something which I never expected would be whole again. And it was only years later that I realised that it wasn't my hand she held that day. It was my heart. Her touch had chased away the poison inside of me and began patching up that gaping, rotting hole in my chest. Ruby was the band aid I never knew I needed.

She saved me.

And if the time ever came, I knew that I would do the same for her.

* * *

**AN: **This final chapter was insanely hard to write. I think this chapter wasn't as good as the other but maybe I'm just overthinking things. This is now complete, so thank you to those who followed and favorited this story! I don't know how you can put up with my long periods of procrastination but I love you all for it!


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